


On the Difficult Mending of Broken Things

by Driftwoodsun



Series: Unable to Connect, Please Try Again [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Boys Kissing, Bugs & Insects, Child Neglect, Confident Yamaguchi Tadashi, Emotional Hurt, Figuring Out What Some of Your Lighter Kinks Might Be, Figuring Things Out, Hickies, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Making Out, Original Character Death(s), Pokemon References, Power Play, Some comfort, Tsukishima Kei Being an Asshole, Tsukishima Kei is Bad at Feelings, Tsukishima Kei is a Mess, Yamaguchi Tadashi is So Done, Yamaguchi Tadashi is a Little Shit, Yamaguchi Tadashi's Dad (Mentioned), Yamaguchi Tadashi's Mom (Mentioned), learning how to kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:07:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29378970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Driftwoodsun/pseuds/Driftwoodsun
Summary: Kei is very good at breaking the things that he wants.Fortunately, sometimes the things that he wants refuse to be broken.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Series: Unable to Connect, Please Try Again [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2168286
Comments: 7
Kudos: 29





	On the Difficult Mending of Broken Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pencilash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pencilash/gifts).



> I told you this would be posted around January 25th and here we are sitting at February 12th. Writing this part was much more difficult than I anticipated, but I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> I just want to draw quick attention to the alcoholism and child neglect tags above; I don't want to ambush anyone. Additionally, there's a moment here where Tsukishima is deeply and intentionally emotionally cruel to Yamaguchi; it's important to the fic and to Kei's future character development in the series, so I hope it doesn't come off as gratuitous or ooc, as I'm writing him, anyway. 
> 
> This picks up almost directly after "The Question That You're Looking For" and it may be difficult to follow if you haven't read the other parts in this series.
> 
> Rated 'M' for figuring out how to kiss, a bunch of making out following that, and brief discussions of oral sex and other mature themes. We'll get back to a heavy 'E' rating in the part after next, though.
> 
> TW for Entomophobia.

Tsukishima watched as Tadashi opened the door to the Yamaguchi residence and stepped inside, not bothering to announce his arrival, and, finally unlinking his pinky from Kei’s, took off his shoes. Tsukishima did the same after quietly following him in, absent-mindedly tugging on the small finger that Tadashi had just released. The house was dim and silent. It always was whenever they chose to come here after practice. A moment later Tadashi was bounding up the stairs in the faint light, his presence hardly disturbing the preternatural stillness that Kei always associated with his best friend’s home. He hesitated a moment in the entryway as something painful and unfamiliar clenched in his chest.

“Tsukki, come on! We have homework!” Tadashi chirped at him from the top of the staircase.

“Water.” He responded in his typically monotone voice. He heard Tadashi hum in affirmation above him before walking away.

Kei huffed and pushed his glasses up his nose. Frowning, he made his way into the kitchen and flipped on the light. The dishes hadn’t been done for at least a couple of days and several empty bottles of cheap sake were sitting on the counter. He sighed and hesitated, chewing on his bottom lip, briefly, before gathering them up, turning on the tap, and rinsing them out before putting them in the bin for recycling. He began to quickly wash the dishes next, until they had all been set aside in the rack to dry. Finally he opened the refrigerator, but it remained mostly empty, just as it had been the last time he was here. Kei stared at it for a moment, before shutting the door. He grabbed two of the drinking glasses he had just washed, filled them with tap water and started up the stairs to Tadashi’s bedroom.

He pushed through the slightly ajar door and balked at the sight that greeted him. Tadashi was standing on his tip toes, his back to Kei, taking the top off of the small terrarium that sat on the uppermost shelf of his desk that housed his pet rhinoceros beetle. Soft, dark grey sweatpants clung in a very flattering way to the muscles of his long legs and to his small, but well-formed rear end. It was the shirt that Tadashi was wearing that really made him pull up short, however - a slightly too-large, rich, almost royal, purple hoodie with the orange-toothed logo of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo emblazoned across its back. It was a shirt that belonged to Kei, one that he had gotten years ago and that he kept here, along with a few others, so that he’d have something to wear other than his uniform when they came to Tadashi’s after practice to study or hang out. Seeing it on Tadashi now, he could feel the color rising on his cheeks, the warm, glowing feeling blossom in his chest and, more distressingly, that familiar curl of arousal low in his belly.

“Yamaguchi.”

Tadashi looked over his shoulder at him without changing position, the ghost of a smirk on his lips. Tsukishima felt his blush deepen and averted his eyes.

“What took you so long, Tsukki?”

“…Bathroom.”

The brunette made a small noise acknowledging the answer before turning back to the terrarium. Tsukishima set the waters down on the coasters on Tadashi’s desk and carefully sidled up next to him. Suddenly he was resisting the desire to tug on his fingers. He needlessly adjusted his glasses instead and cleared his throat. “What are you doing?”

“Feeding Rex. Here, can you actually help me take this down?”

“I… guess.” He grabbed one side of the enclosure, standing as far away from it as possible and helped Tadashi ease it down onto the desk proper. Tadashi grinned at him.

“Thanks, Tsukki. I know you don’t like him.”

The taller boy shrugged in response and watched warily as Tadashi used a spray bottle to mist the interior once, and then opened a jelly pack and carefully placed it inside.

“Your mom should have let you get a dog.”

Tadashi cast him a warning glance.

“She wants me to prove that I’m capable of taking care of a pet. She said she would after Rex lives a nice long life.”

Kei looked away, stepping back and tugging at his fingers. “Rex is six months old. Rhinoceros beetles live three or four years if they’re healthy. By the time he dies, you’ll be out of the house. You’ve wanted a dog since you were eight. A beetle is a pet for a child.”

Tadashi’s shoulders slumped and he was silent for several long moments while he stared into the terrarium. Tsukishima busied himself studying Tadashi’s bookshelf, pulling down and fiddling with the small plush Growlithe that he had given the brunette for his birthday several years ago.

“…Sorry.”

Tadashi tapped lightly on the glass. “It’s okay.” He paused before continuing in a voice pitched one octave higher, mimicking his younger self. “Rex, Tsukki’s just a big scaredy-cat who doesn’t see how beautiful you are. You’re just a creepy-crawly to him." The octave dropped off and his voice returned to normal. "At least you’re not a cicada though. He _really_ hates those.”

“I hate the noise they make.”

Tadashi glanced at him and narrowed his eyes. “Don’t lie. You hate them, too.”

The orange, stylized _Futabasaurus_ on the front of Tadashi’s shirt, _his_ shirt, stared at him accusingly.

“… Maybe.” He replied, a bit huffily.

Tadashi hummed and turned back to the terrarium.

“I bet he doesn’t even realize that I picked your name because it reminds me of him.”

Kei blinked at him. “What?”

Tadashi nodded. “Yeah. Come here and help me put this back up.”

Tsukishima put the Growlithe back and dutifully made his way over to Tadashi. He helped him place the terrarium back on the topmost shelf, still keeping as much of his body as far away from it as possible.

“Did you... Really do that, with his name, I mean?”

Tadashi shrugged. “Of course. Dinosaurs always remind me of you, Tsukki; he looks so prehistoric I thought naming him after Tyrannosaurus Rex was appropriate. Well, and a little funny, since I knew you’d hate him so much.”

“I don’t… hate him… exactly. I guess.” He smirked “I like him more than Hinata, anyway.”

Tadashi gave him a grin and moved to pull his textbooks out of his bag, eventually settling to sit cross legged on his bed and laying his math book in his lap, his notebook next to him, pen between his lips. Kei hesitated. They usually studied together on the bed, regardless of whose house they went to after school, but today, with Tadashi in his hoodie and the way that the memory of the warmth of their linked pinkies lingered, the bed seemed dangerous, a new and unknowable territory that Kei no longer understood how to cross.

Tadashi glanced up, taking his pen from his mouth and tapping it against his bottom lip. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m going to study at your desk today.” Kei said tonelessly, as he moved to sit in the desk chair.

A brief, indecipherable look flashed across Tadashi’s face, “Oh. Okay.” Then he bowed his head to continue studying his book, pen dropping to tap, tap, tap against the open page.

* * *

They had been studying without a word passing between them for almost an hour before Tadashi finally broke the comfortable silence.

“Tsukki?”

“Hm?” Kei didn’t bother to look up from where he was bent over the desk, jotting down notes. 

“Why won’t you sit on the bed with me?”

His pen froze over his paper and his eyes moved to where Tadashi was looking at him expectantly. He had set his books and pen aside and his whole focus was on Tsukishima.

Kei slowly set his own pen down before clearing his throat and swiveling the chair to face the brunette, but he didn’t answer him.

“Tsukki?”

The blonde could feel the color rising on his cheeks and he broke eye contact with Tadashi. He suddenly very much wanted to stand up and walk out of the room, to pace and adjust his glasses and tug on his fingers. Instead, he remained silently where he was and refused to look at his best friend.

“Tsukki?” More urgently this time.

He took a sudden, deep breath. “You’re wearing my shirt, okay? That’s why!” It wasn’t an explosion exactly, but it was louder than he intended. Almost more accusation than explanation.

Tadashi huffed. “I don’t think that’s the reason, Tsukki. Well... a reason, maybe, but not the reason.”

“If you know the reason, why don’t you tell me what it is?”

The brunette considered him silently from beneath his eyelashes for a few moments before slowly getting off of the bed. “Alright.” He made his way over to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. “I think you’re scared Tsukki.”

Kei turned his face away again and didn’t reply.

Tadashi slowly, gently settled himself in Kei’s lap, putting a hand on his cheek to turn his face towards him. Kei’s eyes were shut resolutely, and he felt himself begin to tremble lightly. Tadashi was a warm and pleasant weight in his lap; more firm and heavy than he expected. He could feel him breathing and smell the light, slightly citrus fragrance of his shampoo.

“Tsukki... Kei.... look at me, please?”

Tsukishima exhaled and pursed his lips before reluctantly opening his eyes and staring daggers at Tadashi.

“Hm. You’re angry at me too.” He glanced down and began to fiddle with the buttons on Tsukishima’s uniform. “That’s okay. We never... we never really talked about what happened after the match with Shiratorizawa. We should. Especially... especially if we’re going to date.” Tsukishima stilled at the ‘if’. Tadashi laid a placating hand on his chest. His voice fell, became softer. “It’s okay. We need to, Tsukki. We’ve both been avoiding it.”

“I can’t. Not right now. Not yet.” He could hear the panic in his own voice, though as he looked wild-eyed through his own mind, he couldn’t recognize the source or the cause. He only knew that he felt like an injured animal, with an old, festering wound that Tadashi kept poking at.

Tadashi leaned back at his tone, brows knit in concern, and searched his eyes, before gently touching his forehead to Kei’s. “I really want to kiss you, right now, Tsukki. And I’m pretty sure you’d like to kiss me too. I think you really, really want to. I think you want to so much that it terrifies you.”

Tsukishima swallowed. He could feel the wounded animal in him straining at its leash, could feel that part of him, so scorpion-like, that was most effective at protecting him, at driving others away, rearing back to strike. “Don’t.” It was a strangled whisper.

“I won’t. That’s why I wanted you on the bed with me, though, you know, so that maybe you would kiss me. So that we could at least hopefully cuddle. That’s why I put on your shirt tonight. I really... I like wearing your clothes, Tsukki. I sleep in them sometimes, when it’s late and I’m lonely and I want to feel safe. I think I’d really, really enjoy kissing you. Love it, even. But I won’t.” He hesitated and took a deep breath. “Can I tell you a secret though, Tsukki?”

The blonde nodded once, quickly, against him.

“Sometimes we’re allowed to have something that we want, if we’re willing to take it.”

Kei pulled back. He felt helpless as it happened. Watched in slow motion, as if from outside himself, the leash slip, the scorpion strike, felt the safe, reassuring weight of the knife as it left his hand, his tongue. 

“Are we?” He said quietly, with a touch of venom in his voice. “When, exactly, is your mom going to stop coming home so trashed that she doesn’t even recognize who you are? You’ve wanted that ever since your dad died. You’ve wanted it _so_ much, I _know_ you have, but it still happens all of the time.” Tadashi was staring at him in stunned silence, his large doe-eyes wide with surprise and hurt. “I mean, of _course_ you want a dog and of _course_ she won’t let you have one. You both know that a dog would love you more and better than she does. But hey, at least she lets you keep an insect around, so that you have _something_ to come home to every night.”

The cold, unwanted satisfaction of a well-placed blow, one that the scorpion-like part of him hoped would be so devastating that it would prove fatal to their relationship, was just beginning to settle on him, and the horrified, self-loathing-filled panic that he had just irrevocably poisoned the best thing in his life had started clawing at his throat, when he realized that Tadashi wasn’t moving away or hitting him, wasn’t yelling, wasn’t getting up to kick him out, didn’t seem angry, wasn’t sobbing. He was looking at him calmly, with something like sorrow, and shaking his head. All of his empty satisfaction and unmitigated terror were suddenly wiped out, replaced by stunned confusion. This wasn’t how the script went. This wasn’t how people reacted when he took aim, _real_ aim, at the most vulnerable parts of their lives and struck with as much skill and force as he possibly could.

“It’s not going to be that easy, Tsukki. I know what you’re doing, just like I know exactly what kind of dog I’m _going_ to get. I even know exactly what I’m going to name her. Maybe it will be after I move out, if I move out, but that’s okay. My mom is never going to stop drinking way too much, and she’s never going to love me the way that she used to, before my dad died. That hurts. You know that hurts. It aches like... like an old wound that took a long, long time to heal. Is still healing, maybe. Probably. I didn’t say that we could have everything that we want. I said that sometimes, _sometimes_ , we’re allowed to have _something_ that we want... If we’re willing to take it.” He hesitated, his voice dropping to a strained whisper. Tsukishima watched as his lower lip began to quiver and his eyes became glassy. “I know what you’re doing Kei and I’m not... I’m not going to let you.”

Suddenly Tsukishima felt himself squeezing his eyes shut and surging forward, his lips connecting messily, painfully with Tadashi’s. A sharp, surprised little sound escaped the boy in front of him. Then that boy was kissing him back just as fiercely, just as clumsily. After one too many times knocking their teeth together, Tsukishima’s lips moved to the corner of Tadashi’s mouth and began trailing small, close-mouthed kisses down across his chin, his jaw, his neck, desperately repeating “I’m sorry.” every time he came up to peck his lips to a new spot on Tadashi’s skin. The shorter boy slowly moved off of his lap, and stood up, gripping Kei around the wrist to pull him up with him. Trembling suddenly, more intensely than when Tadashi had settled himself on his lap, the taller boy refused to look at him. “ _I’m sorry_. Please don’t make me leave. I don’t _want_ to leave.” His voice was small and miserable.

Tadashi gripped his shoulders and turned them both around before pushing Tsukishima down lightly onto his bed. Kei looked up at him in stunned confusion for the second time that evening.

“You’re an asshole, Kei, and I am so, so unbelievably pissed at you right now. But if you really want to apologize, you’ll shut up and start kissing me properly so we can figure out how this works. I don’t want to get a fat lip every time we do this.”

“O-Okay.”

Tadashi got onto the bed and swung a leg over the taller boy’s hips. He looked down at him appraisingly.

“W-We should probably start slow? I think...” the blonde boy began.

“Tsukki, I just told you to shut up and I meant it.”

Tsukishima closed his mouth with a click and swallowed audibly.

“Better.” Tadashi huffed. Leaning down, he closed his eyes. Tilting his head, he gently moved to press his mouth against Kei’s, bumping their noses and causing Tsukishima’s glasses to slide up, past his eyes. He huffed again and retreated. Tsukishima moved to take them off but Tadashi shook his head at him.

"I want you to be able to see me," he said, voice low. Tsukishima slid them back into place. Tadashi moved in again, shifting to slot their noses together and press chastely against Tsukishima’s lips. Feeling bold, the brunette nipped at them lightly, causing Kei to grunt, an unpleasant note of pain in his voice. The shorter boy pulled back.

Tsukishima looked at him quizzically. “Can I….”

Tadashi narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“It’s just… how are we so bad at this when you were so good at… that thing you did the other day?”

“So _now_ you’re okay with talking about that?”

Tsukishima glanced down and played with the hem of Tadashi’s shirt, his shirt. “The mechanics aren’t-“

“Yeah, I know. That isn’t the part that freaks you out.”

Kei nodded sullenly.

Tadashi huffed. “Honestly? I’m pretty sure I _sucked_ at doing that.” Kei snorted and Tadashi gave him an affectionate, lopsided grin. “You just never had anyone go down on you before, Tsukki. Of course you thought it was amazing.”

“Wait… so you’re saying that there’s room for improvement? That you could get _better_ at it?”

The brunette stared intensely at the blonde boy below him. “Kei,” he said seriously, “I’m going to get a _lot_ better at it. I would spend more time practicing doing that to you than I spend practicing my serves, if I could.”

Tsukishima felt the tips of his ears go red and stared at him wide-eyed for a moment before firmly gripping the smaller boy’s slender hips. Then, taking a deep breath, he twisted, flipping them and pulling a little squeak from Tadashi who was suddenly the one on his back with Kei looming over him.

The larger boy moved to cage the younger boy in with his arms, his lower half still slotted between Tadashi’s spread legs. He let his eyes roam slowly over his friend’s body and watched as a blush crept up past the collar of his hoodie, eventually making its way across his full face. The pinch server’s pupils were fully blown now, dark irises thin-rimmed around them; his breathing suddenly shallow. Kei had always known that Tadashi craved his attention; there was an embarrassingly powerful part of him that exulted in the way that the boy would preen when he was the sole focus of it. Now, though, as Kei felt Tadashi's cock stiffening against his thigh, it occurred to him that he had been blind to what had been at the root of Tadashi’s desire to be noticed by him all of these years. The older boy brought his hand up to cup Tadashi’s face and used his thumb to lightly trace the freckles splattered across the boy’s cheek, down, to swipe back and forth at his lower lip, lightly. Tadashi was completely still; eyes fixed on the face of the boy above him.

“You like it even more than I realized, when I pay attention to you, don’t you?” he asked, voice soft. Tadashi made a small noise and looked away as his blush deepened, shading near purple. “Don’t you?” Kei pressed.

Tadashi glared at him. “I’m still pissed at you,” he muttered.

“I know… I really am sorry.” Kei paused. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

Tadashi smirked ruefully. “Mm. Hopefully you’ll be better at it this time.” 

“Oh my God. Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

The boy below him raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you make me, Tsukki?”

Kei rolled his eyes before he took his own advice from earlier and advanced slowly this time, keeping his eyes open and allowing them to scan Tadashi’s face softly as he leaned in. The brunette watched Tsukishima, his own eyes flicking across his face until they fluttered shut as their lips touched. Tsukishima rolled his neck experimentally and Tadashi moved pliantly with him. He allowed his tongue to swipe gently against Tadashi’s plush lower lip, before nipping at it lightly, mimicking what Tadashi had done to him earlier. The noise this drew out of Tadashi however, was very different from the one it had drawn out of Tsukishima. It was a surprised little trill; a sound laced with both pleasure and need rather than pain and unpleasantness. It reminded the blonde very distinctly of the sound Tadashi had made when he had accidentally pulled his hair while the brunette had been on his knees in front of him in the bathroom at Shiratorizawa. It was a noise that he was unsurprised to learn made his cock twitch. That motivation and memory fresh in his mind, he moved his hands up to curl tightly through Tadashi’s hair while deepening the kiss, licking gently at the seam of his lips. The boy opened his mouth slightly in response, offering Tsukishima access, Tadashi’s own tongue softly, tentatively brushing against the blonde’s. Tsukishima took this as an invitation and he allowed himself to be slightly more forceful in his exploration of Tadashi’s mouth, pulling another, appreciative whine out of the boy beneath him. One of Tadashi’s hands had made its way to Tsukishima’s own hair. His fingers threaded softly back and forth through the blonde strands, gentle in their passage. His other moved in small, soothing circles over his lower back. Their combination, so light and careful, made something in Kei sing.

Tsukishima finally broke the kiss to come up for air and gaze at Tadashi. The smaller boy was disheveled, his red lips glistening and slightly swollen. He blinked up at Tsukishima lazily.

“Better?”

Tadashi seemed to take a moment to consider this and then nodded slowly and shrugged as best he could.

“Guess you just needed to be on top.” he grinned, prompting Kei to dive back in to explore his mouth, and linger there, content to lose time. Eventually he pulled back, and gripped the bottom of the boy’s hoodie, his hoodie, and pulled it up and off of him, a tad regretfully. Tadashi allowed this, and when Tsukishima found a t-shirt underneath it, that immediately found its way onto the floor as well. Tadashi laid back down as Tsukishima pulled himself up and gave himself a moment to openly and unashamedly appreciate Tadashi’s upper body, which had filled out pleasantly over the course of the year. While still slender, his focus on serving had broadened his shoulders a bit; and his continuous practice had thoroughly toned him. A dense trail of freckles cascaded down his shoulders, arms and sides, thinning out, but present still, across his chest, but disappearing almost entirely below the line of his pecs. Tsukishima cupped Tadashi’s chin with the palms of both of his hands and kissed him deeply before allowing them to trail down the boy’s torso, until his fingertips fanned out over the edge of the waistband of his dark grey sweatpants tracing along the line where it just met his flesh, curving his hands down, he gripped the freckled boys hips as he had done earlier, to get him on his back, only this time his thumbs massaged small circles into the bones there. Tsukishima leaned down to suck lightly under the boy’s ear, along his jawline and neck, to its junction with his shoulder. Tadashi responded immediately to this; body stretching pleasantly, and offering whines whose volume and neediness seemed to increase the harder the blond boy suckled at his skin; noting this, the lower Tsukishima went down his neck the more forcefully he drew Tadashi’s freckled flesh into his mouth. Finally pulling away to begin working the other side, his eyes fell on the red and purple marks now blooming high up on Tadashi’s body. His breath hitched at the spike of arousal that this caused, his hands moving back up to unthinkingly stroke his thumb along the marks which started, conveniently, at the point just slightly above where his school uniform’s collar would completely cover them and growing darker the further down his neck and shoulder that the trail led. Tadashi glanced up at him through pleasure dimmed eyes.

“I think I gave you a hickey.”

“Huh?” Tadashi immediately sat up and looked at the point low on his collar where Tsukishima’s thumb was stroking. He let out a shaky breath.

“I’m sor-” Yamaguchi’s hand flew up and covered his mouth. Tsukishima raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t you dare apologize for this. You have other things to apologize for, but not this." He looked directly into Tsukishima’s eyes. “I want _more_ of these and I want _you_ to give them to me _on purpose_.” Tsukishima smirked and he saw Tadashi’s eyes widen when he felt it on his palm. He lowered his hand.

“I’ll put them anywhere you want for now. But down the road, I’m going to put them where _I_ want to put them and we’ll have to decide if you get to have a say or not.” He watched as the brunette nodded eagerly, shivering at his words. “So, where do you want them for tonight?”

Tadashi looked down at his torso contemplatively.

“I don’t kno-”

The front door slammed closed downstairs and the pleasantly warm cocoon that had been protecting them from the cold realities of the outside world for the last several hours vanished.

Tadashi groaned and fell back on the bed, dragging his hands down his face. He laid there for a moment with his eyes closed.

“Fuck.” It was quiet but emphatic. “Can you hand me my shirt?”

The blonde bent down and picked up the nearest shirt at hand and threw it to Tadashi. The freckled boy grimaced and threw it back. “No, your…” he paused, biting his lip. Looking up at Tsukishima, he was suddenly that boy from so many years before, facing demons that were too large for him to confront alone. He sniffed pathetically. “Just… the hoodie I was wearing.”

Tsukishima cast his eyes around the room searching for where he had tossed it in his haste to get to see more of Tadashi’s skin. Finding it behind the boy’s desk chair, he tossed it to him and the brunette began to put it on. 

“I’ll be right back. I need to check on her.” He padded out of the room and called down the stairs. 

“Mom?” there was no reply, and a moment later he was gone.

He eventually returned somber and alone. 

“What’s going on?”

Tadashi glanced at him. Tsukishima lowered his eyes and stared hard at the floor. 

“You know exactly what’s going on, Kei. She’s _trashed_ and she’s pouring herself some more.”

“Is there anything I can do?” He hesitated. “Should I leave?”

“Why bother? If she can’t recognize her own son, how is she possibly going to remember that you were even here when she wakes up tomorrow morning?” Tadashi replied acidly. The brunette huffed and suddenly he seemed smaller, emptied of all the fight he had in him. “Yes, Kei, you should leave. Just… use the side door. You don’t need to see her like this anymore than you already have. ”

Tsukishima blinked at him. “Alright. Are you sure that you don’t want me to stay?”

Yamaguchi sat on his bed and put his head in his hands

“No. I don’t want you to stay. Thank you, though,” he said softly.

Kei moved to gather his things up silently, eventually lingering by the door. “Yamaguchi?”

“Hm?” He didn’t look up.

“I really _am_ sorry.” the blonde said again, just as small and miserable as before.

“I know that you’re sorry, Tsukki.”

The taller boy’s eyes became glassy and, glancing away from Tadashi’s face and worrying his lip, he nodded quickly before turning to leave, then he hesitated.

Tugging on his fingers, he took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

“Is… Is our date Saturday evening still happening?”

Tadashi was silent for what seemed like a very long moment before replying.

“Yes, it’s still happening, and we’re still spending Sunday together. I’m not staying the night at your house with your parents home, though. You can stay the night here, instead, if you want. My mom probably won’t be home until three or four in the morning, if she comes home at all. You can… keep me company.”

Tsukishima’s shoulders relaxed visibly “Okay. I’d like that. To keep you company, I mean. I still get to pick out the documentaries, though, right?”

“I’m pretty sure we’ll find a more enjoyable way to spend our time, but yes, you can still pick out the documentaries.” Tadashi replied with affectionate sarcasm. “Now will you please head home? I need to put my mom to bed and it’s never easy when she’s this gone. Then I have something else I need to… attend to, if I want to be able to sleep tonight. Remember to go out the side door like I said.”

“I heard you the first time, Yamaguchi.”

“Good, because honestly Tsukki? I feel like I’ve been trying to tell you some things for years, and you’re just finally starting to hear them now.”

**Author's Note:**

> I headcanon that Tadashi's home life is an absolute wreck since I think it explains a lot of his behavior in canon; sleeping like a stone as often as possible; his seeming lack of friends as a child; relying on a complete stranger to protect him from bullies (at first); imprinting on Kei as hard as he does just because he feels like he (may have) stuck up for him; the fact that Kei's family seems to care more about him then his own; the surrogate father thing he has going on with Shimada, etc. etc.
> 
> It's looking like there's going to be two or three more parts proper to this series. Might follow up with a few in-universe PWPs though, since where I plan to leave them is pretty ripe for that.
> 
> Anyway, Part 4 is on its way. Hopefully in less than two and a half months this time.


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